Black Panthers at Heaven’s Gate
God lives in Angela Davis’ afro
setting
coils
free
from
america
setting
strange
fruit
rituals
afire
setting
griots
on
school
boards
setting
down
manna
before
prophets
setting
up
funds
for
Mumia
setting
rome
for
second
fall
setting
God lives in Angela Davis’ afro.
When Good Women Must Murder
for lucille
I
must kill
roaches
they climb on my
tenement walls
run over my floors
like they paid last
month’s rent
eat crackers I was planning
on having with
next day’s lunch
I
had to kill
a roach
once
I lifted my shoe
to shew a gathering of them away
they scurried like a dollars worth of
rolling copper pennies
but this
one
he did not budge
instead he turned to face me
bored his little beady eyes
into mines
I looked at him
with his hairy see-through legs
then back at the shoe
in my right hand
then back at him again
thinking
this little mofo done overstayed his
welcome
he must’ve been a mind-readin’ roach
‘cause he took off
I lifted my shoe
chased
bustled
scurried around my apartment
‘til he was soft
under my heel
